Guild Wars isn't done yet. ArenaNet has announced Guild Wars Afterlife, which Inven Global describes as the first new DLC for the original game in close to two decades. It lands on January 13, and pre-purchases are open now.
You'll need Guild Wars Reforged to play it. That's the updated version of the game that bundles the Prophecies, Factions and Nightfall campaigns, Inven Global reports, and the Steam listing confirms the requirement.
What you actually do in Xotecha
Afterlife sends your existing characters to Xotecha, a land that Inven Global, quoting the store page, says was "long believed lost to time". The main activity is the Unformed, a dungeon that shifts from run to run through jungles, cenotes and floating ruins.
Here's the part that matters for veterans: inside it, your character progression and inventory are stripped away, so every run starts from scratch. Whatever your main has built up over the years doesn't help you inside the dungeon.
The hook is skill drafting. You build a new skill bar for each run, and Steam says those abilities can come from any profession. Inven Global calls that a sharp break from the fixed builds Guild Wars is known for.
It isn't all wiped at the end of a run, though. Inven Global says rewards collected along the way carry over to later dungeon runs, and some permanent rewards can be used outside Xotecha. You can run it with friends or with computer-controlled henchmen.
Story and new enemies
There's a new story set deep in the Mists, along with new allies and enemies including Ancient Golems, Nightmares and the Cult of Odran, according to Inven Global. Inven Global also reports ArenaNet saying an "unexpected adversary" is returning from the shadows, without saying who.
Pre-purchase and what's still unknown
Pre-purchasing gets you the Vestments of the Order costume, tied to a group of explorers called the Order of the Moonless Night. The store page says the costume will be sold separately soon after launch, according to Inven Global. On Steam, it's described as non-tradable and redeemed through the Costume Maker NPC.
The Steam page currently shows a 20% pre-purchase discount that runs until January 13. It still lists the release date itself as "Coming soon", so the January 13 launch date comes from Inven Global's report on ArenaNet's announcement. ArenaNet's post on X wasn't checked directly for this article. Inven Global says the post didn't list a price, and that ArenaNet hasn't said whether more content like this is planned for the original game.
Inven Global reports that pre-purchases are open on the Guild Wars Store and that ArenaNet's post didn't say which other platforms will carry the DLC. The Steam listing now answers that for one of them.
Beau's take: Dropping a skill-drafting dungeon into a game this old is a smart move, because it sidesteps the usual problem with returning to a classic: everyone else already has the perfect build. In a game built around what you bring through the door, this asks what you can put together run by run. When the run wipes your kit, knowing the game's systems counts for more than what's sitting in your inventory. That's a fair fight, and it's a good reason to dust off an old character.
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